Girl Vs Dog - Battle of the Monkey!

This morning we were getting ready for school and Saiya had her little purple monkey in her hands.  I grabbed her jacket (because its FREEZING outside) and told her to put it on.  I was holding her jacket while she slipped one hand into it.  When it came to her other hand, she had to drop the monkey in order to slide her fist into the sleeve.  Rhaina was standing in the kitchen watching, waiting, prowling, anxious for Saiya to put her beloved monkey down.  Unthinking, she dropped the monkey on the floor to slide her hand into the jacket and immediately realized what she did as Rhaina inched closer to it.  She held up her hand and said, "No! Rhaina! Go Way!"  Shaking her hand vigorously at the poor dog.  Before Rhaina had the chance to grab at the monkey, I scooped it up and tucked it under my arm.

Disaster averted!  We won the battle, but the war over the stuffies is still on!

Girl Vs. Dogs - The War is Started

Since day one, the dogs and Saiya have gotten along pretty well.  For the most part they ignore each other. Saiya steers clear of them and they are indifferent towards her. She hates it when they nose her in the face (especially since they stand eye-to-eye with each other). The dogs have several toys that look like stuffed animals and as you can imagine, Saiya has TONS of stuffed animals. The dogs have recently discovered that they can take Saiya’s stuffed animals out of her room. They do not really tear them apart, they just slobber on them a little. Of course, Saiya screams when she sees her stuffed animals in the dogs’ mouth.

The last couple of days, the dogs have been getting brave. They have discovered that they can take Saiya’s stuffed animals right out of her hands and run off with it before she gets a chance to do anything about it.

Last night, Saiya was very tired. She fell asleep in the car on the way to dinner and then we walked around Walmart for a bit looking for Christmas presents for my niece and nephew. By the time we got home, she was a little cranky, so I was getting her bath ready when I told her to take off her shoes and put her things away. All of a sudden, I hear a (THUMP) come from the living room and she starts crying. I head into the living room and ask her if she fell down. She said “no” and then proceeded to whine and cry at me, so I figured she was just throwing a fit because she didn’t want to take a bath and head to bed. So she reluctantly takes her shoes off and continues crying, all the way through her bath, and while I am putting her to bed. Poor tired girl.

She knows that she is only allowed to have three stuffed animals to sleep with plus Yoshi. I am looking all over for Pongo (a new panda bear that a good friend gave to us). She goes on and on about something when I asked her where he was, most of which came out as whining. Chris looks in the car, under the dining room table, in the kitchen, and finally he finds it under one of the dogs in the living room. As it turns out, one of the dogs stole her panda bear and ran off before anyone saw it. That’s why she was crying when we first got home. I only felt a little bad because she was not very clear when I asked her why she was crying. She simply threw a fit and most of what she said came out in between frustrated screams, whines, and sobs.

The dogs are sneaky enough to know not to take her toys with us in the same room…  When did we get "Special Ops Recon-Dogs"??  Let the battle begin!

Saiya’s Dance Class

Saiya LOVES her dance class!  Her first day was a little hard because she didn’t really understand the concept of “dance class” but after three days, she has come to LOVE it!  Now when we get her all dressed and ready to go to class, she is so excited!  She follows along and dances with the other girls.  It’s SO CUTE!  Of course, there are those moments when she is fooling around or not doing what she is supposed to be doing in the class and I just want to jump through the window and make her pay attention, but according to the other parents, that feeling never goes away, even when they are MUCH older.  HAHA!

She was measured for her recital outfit on Saturday and the poor girl doesn’t even fit into an extra small!  We might have to take it in a little bit depending on how much she grows between now and May.  The outfits are cute, although I don’t really agree with the song they picked.  The theme this year is “Hollywood”, so the teacher picked Elvis’s “Hounddog”.     :P     Oh well.  It’s going to be a tap dance, which I’m also not fond of.  As long as Saiya has fun, I guess it doesn’t really matter.

One item I am particularly proud of is her dance bag.  About two years ago, my father brought back a designer bag from China that he got at a discounted price (because everything over there is cheaper…).  It was pink, leather, bulky, and had a BIG swirled flower on the front of it.  It may very well have been a Prada bag, but I was never going to use it.  It was one of those things that I didn’t have the heart to donate or sell on E-bay, yet hated to use because it was very ugly, so it stayed in my closet.  I only felt slightly guilty about taking it apart somewhat and making it into a dance bag for Saiya.  It was the perfect size for a dance bag and I didn’t want to waste the money on a new one since I have a billion bags at home I never use.  I removed the zipper and the big flower on the front, added Velcro so it is easy for a four-year-old to open and close, converted the straps into a shoulder strap and Voila!!  Instant designer leather dance bag!  She absolutely loves it!  I also ordered some cute ballerina patches to put on the front of the bag.  Looking at it, you would never know I took it apart.

I’m so happy that she loves to dance!  I hope she sticks with it for many years to come!!

Getting Ready for the Holidays!

We are not going to be home the weekend after Thanksgiving, so we decided to put our tree up a little early this year.  I pulled everything down from the attic with the help of my ever patient husband and we proceeded to put the tree together.  Last year we had a very nice 9 foot tree, but this year that tree will be set up at my parents' house for their holiday party (we are doing that tomorrow afternoon).  So we are stuck with the very sad looking 7 foot tree I got on discount after Christmas the year before last.

I get the feeling that they celebrated Christmas in China in the orphanage because Saiya knew exactly what it was and what you were supposed to do with it.  She even pointed out that it didnt look like the tree in the picture because it didnt have any presents under it.  Clever girl...  She helped decorate it and insisted on clumping the ornaments together on the same two branches.  Not sure why kids do that, but my niece and nephew did the same thing last year.  Its almost like they claim part of the tree and its a race to see who can cram the most ornaments into their section.

After a bit of rearranging, we now have a lovely tree sitting in the living room!  Saiya put the star on top (of course!) and she even hung her stocking up over the fireplace.

I can't believe we have had her for almost three months.  Wow! How time flies!

First Ballet Class and Dim Sum!

Saiya loves her dance class.  At first, she was crying, but once she got in the room and calmed down a little bit, she was fine.  The dance teachers were great and really took the time to walk her through the whole dance class thing.  After awhile, she followed along with the other girls, tapping her foot and pointing her toes and such.  It was so cute!  She loved the noise the tap shoes made on the floor, but was very unsure about hopping up and down on one foot with them.  She was very excited about the dance class.  She loved it so much that she didn’t want to take her leotard off when we got home.  I’m glad she likes it.  There are only four girls (including her) in the class, so it makes it really nice and easy for her to adjust.

On Sunday we went to dim sum with my parents.  For the first time, Saiya let papa (grandpa) pick her up and hold her hand.  She even wanted him to sit next to her during lunch!  I’m so glad she is coming around to him.  This was the first time that she has actually responded to him at all, most of the time she just stared at him.  Lunch was great!  I couldn’t help but notice how much the restaurant looked like the restaurant at the White Swan Hotel in China.  Hmmm….  How very interesting!

Shots, Snow Boots, and Cotton Candy

Friday Saiya had her first doctor’s appointment.  She was there for a checkup and for her last Hepatitis B booster.  As soon as we were taken into the clinic area and led to the scale, Saiya started to cry.  The clinic area looks very much like a clinic and she remembers well the vaccination clinic in China.  They got her height and weight and then moved us to the room (after trying desperately to bribe her with stickers and lollipops).  The doctor examined her and she was being uncooperative for the most part.  Still crying, even though nothing he did hurt her in any way.  Then the nurses came with her shots…  The screaming began and it took two of us to hold her down so they could do both shots at the same time.  She was not a happy camper.  After the shots, she started to throw a temper tantrum and flung her GouGou at one of the nurses.  She picked it up and handed it back to her and I was like “Don’t give it back to her, she will just” ((FLING)) “… throw it back at you…”  Ugh.  But overall the check up went really well!  She has gained 2 pounds and three inches since her physical in China on September 7, nine weeks ago!

I was away for the weekend, and Chris was home with Saiya.  Friday night, Saiya spent the night with my sister who took her to Syrafina’s skating practice Saturday morning.  I’m not so sure Saiya liked it.  My sister said she was crying because she was cold.  She had a hat, mittens, and her winter coat.  Not too sure she will like Indiana in December.  Hahaha!  Poor kid.

Saturday her Uma and Umpa took her to the fair.  She had cotton candy and loads of fun, although she wasn’t tall enough to ride any of the rides.

Yesterday we received her snow boots that I ordered for the Indiana trip.  As I was opening the box, I was very excited and telling her that her new shoes were here.  She was excited too!  I pulled the boots out of the box, unwrapped them and went to show them to Saiya and she made a face and ran and hid behind the living room table.  I called her and she squeeked.  All I could do was laugh.  I don’t think she has ever seen snow boots before.  She kept looking at me like “Those are NOT shoes!  I don’t know what those are, but they are definitely NOT shoes!”  I sat down on the floor and pushed the boot to the side and asked her to come and give me a hug.  She tentatively moved towards me, eyeing the boots the whole time as if they were going to jump out and grab her.  Once she was sitting on my lap, I asked her if she liked them and she said “DON’T LIKE THEM!”  Awwww!!  I said “why not?”  She says “Don’t like them” .  I tried to show her that they were fine and wiggled them onto my foot.  “See?  Shoes!  Does Saiya want to try?” 

So, we put the boots on her and she is stomping around the kitchen with them.  After a little while I tell her to take them off and she shakes her head and starts to cry.  So in a matter of 30 minutes we went from “Oh My God!  Scary Shoes!” to “No, I won’t take them off, they are mine!”  Hahaha!  She was so cute.  All I could do was laugh!

Tiny Dancer

Saiya’s Halloween costume consisted of a leotard and a ballet skirt (along with the ears and tail for the bunny part).  When we put it on her she was twirling and dancing all over the place like a ballet dancer.  So we decided that she was ready to try ballet class.  We visited the two dance studios in our town and we very impressed with Heather’s Dance Studio.  The parents there were eager to talk to us and gave us lots of information about the school and how the whole dance class thing works.  Saiya wasn’t very excited about being there, but I think she will warm up to the idea once she sees kids her age dancing.

So I called and registered her for ballet class.  The teacher I talked to was very nice and informative.  I gave her some information about Saiya and a little bit about her background.  Her class is very small (there are only five other kids in her class) and I really think that she will be able to get the extra attention she needs.

We are very excited about dance class and I hope that she loves it!